whiskerkissed

Vine - no problem. I typed in Non-alcoholic beer alcohol content. Here's a few links I got from that:
Non-alcoholic beer contains alcohol
The Dangers of Non-Alcoholic Beer
http://www.wesleyan.edu/weswell/docs...hol%20Beer.pdf

DrunkenBasement

Funny, I was a beer drinker and the thought of drinking NA beer freaks me out...too close to the real thing for me and since it has some alcohol in it, I don't think it would be smart for me to try it. I did however drink mocktails for a while... just some juice mixed with diet tonic or seltzer water... I really was never much of a mixed drink person, so that didn't seem threatening to me. Then again, the mocktails I make don't have traces of alcohol in them, nor do they remind me of what I drank before.

vinepest

Well, if you look closely at the links you provide, none of them really inform us as to the danger of near beer for relapse, nor the potential for near beer to aid in recovery. Basically they offer two facts:

(1) Near beer contains a trace amount of alcohol.
(2) Olfactory conditioning survives long periods of abstinence.

From these two facts it has been argued that near beer is harmful. But the alleged harm of near beer is based on unverified assumptions about how to interpret (1) and (2). In particular, we have the following assumptions:

(3) Trace amounts of alcohol induce relapse.
(4) Nonrewarded olfactory stimulation does not help extinguish conditioned responses.

If (3) and (4) happen to be false---and I think it's a fair bet that they are---then the natural arguments following (1) and (2) won't work out.

In the mean time, please note that the scientists are humble in their conclusions. The research cited does not even mention near beer. Rather, what we have going on is that laypersons, i.e. non-experts, are holding forth about their interpretation of the scientific results. Now, maybe they are right. Who knows? But I see no reason to think that they are, nor apparently do the scientists. What we need is more research. Until then, all we have, as far as I can see, is conflicting guesswork.

whiskerkissed

So in other words - I can smoke cigarette tobacco from a bong, snort aspirin through rolled up dollar bill, or spike B12 in a rig? Hmmm...justification to repeat old actions and behaviors. The very things we try so hard to change. Get out of the mind set we need to change to recover.

The proof is in all those that go into relapse from continuing old behaviors.

Mark75

I disagree.... What we have here are people sharing their own experience. If I have learned anything about others in recovery.... I have learned that their own experience is as valid and real as anyone else's... and is to be respected, even when their experience does not match my own.

vinepest

Well, that's really a different topic though. I mean, I could go on about all my unique (and perhaps unusual) experiences of how I became abstinent. For example, I could tell you how I vehemently resisted everything related to AA, went back to school and quit cold turkey just from willpower and mental tricks and such. But that's not going to be evidence against the efficacy of AA, and it won't mean that the same tricks I used will work for other people. Similarly, if someone has a bad experience with near beer, that doesn't mean that near beer is generally harmful or dangerous. To make a rational generalization, we need a strong inductive argument, and that requires collecting data on a large scale---no easy task, as you might imagine.

Mark75

Well, I get it... and that's precisely why my approach to this question is what it is... Some people have found it causes relapse... others haven't... Some people feel very very strongly that it's a bad thing, that it is, in fact, actually drinking, and would reset their sobriety date...

There is no rational generalization... no matter what a strong inductive argument would reveal, we will still be left with peoples own experience...

Peace...

Cyranoak

It's not your mistake. His recovery is not your responsibility. It's his. He is not a child. When he's uncomfortable he needs to say so. When you are uncomfortable you need to say so. So, when you wanted to go and you invited him, it was his decision 100 percent to go or not go. When he was uncomfortable, he should have left. It is not your job to monitor him when he's around alcohol.

Part of recovery is communicating honestly and acting on your convictions-- that's what he needed to have done. You have to let go of the idea that you are controlling these things or that you have a responsibility around them. He is an adult, makes his own decisions, and is fully responsible for the outcome.

More than anything else I'm seeing here I'm seeing that you need to be working on your recovery as much or more than he needs to be working on his. You'll know you're there when you are posting about you more than you are posting about him.

Take what you want and leave the rest.

Cyranoak

Stride34

non alcoholic beer isn't for alcoholics, it's for normal people who like the taste of beer but can't or don't want to be under the influence on that particular occasion.

It boggles my mind why a recovering alcoholic would drink na beer (especially because it actually has Alcohol in it?). it makes no sense, and sounds like a relapse waiting to happen...if you don't count drinking something with alcohol in it as a relapse in itself. what percentage of alcohol would a beer have to be in order for in not to be considering "drinking"? less than 1%? less than 3%? lol

besides that, even if it had 0 alcohol in it, drinking non alcoholic bees seems like a sure way of re-introducing those old associations to the brain.

FrothyJay

My understanding is that non-alcoholic beer has alcohol. So it's not really non-alcoholic.

For an alcoholic, drinking alcohol in any amount is less than awesome.

JohnBarleycorn

It is true that most NA beer does have some alcohol in it. As a legacy of the now-defunct Volstead Act, anything with less than 0.5% alcohol can be called "non-Alcoholic" even if it contains some alcohol.

However, there are indeed several brands of NA beer that contain no alcohol whatsoever (0.0%).

These ZERO-ALCOHOL beers are even sold in some Islamic countries that practice absolute, total alcohol prohibition, such as Iran.

GettingStronger2

FWIW, to me it is a personal choice. If you think it will trigger you to drink again, be it because there may be minimal alcohol in it or just the taste, then by all means avoid it. If you don't think it does, then have it if you want it. your choice.

But I am curious as to those who say it has .5% alcohol in it and you should not drink it because of that. Are you that vigilant with everything in your life? For example, do you still use vanilla in baking or eat baked goods that have vanilla extract in them? That has a lot higher alcohol content than NA beer. In fact, people have been known to relapse on it.

Do you check labels of all cold medicines and mouthwashes? Would you know if a certain mouthwash has .5% alcohol in it?

My point is, be reasonable about life. I have eaten food that has alcohol cooked in it. Yes, most of the alcohol cooks out, but not all of it does. Has not caused my body to go into physical cravings for alcohol or caused my to mentally obsess about it. Nor have I relapsed.

Personal choices, folks.

Eddiebuckle

This thread seems to have slid into semantics, but here's my take.

I've got 16 months sober now, and all I can say is that "NA" beer for me seems like a major risk. I say that because there IS alcohol in "NA" beer, very small amounts, but it's there. The fact that you would have to drink 6 to 10 times as much volume to get the same kick as a regular drink doesn't render it harmless, for the same reason that alcoholics are told to avoid mouthwash and cold medicines that contain alcohol. The fact that the process mimics what we did when we were active alcoholics is way to close for comfort for me. The day may come when I will drink NA beer because I like it and honestly feel no "tug" by doing so. Where I am right now in my recovery, that day is way down the road to say the least.

Kher, I would talk to your husband about it. If I were having the conversation (b/c I'm an alcoholic) I would jst ask if the process of drinking that stuff stirs any of the old emotions about drinking, good times, etc.

FrothyJay

With sobriety, yes. I have a physical allergy to alcohol that, once triggered, can have me hoping on a plane to Brazil in a black-out. And no one's told me that my allergy only kicks in when I have more than .05 alcohol. If that's been proven, please send me the link, and maybe I'll have myself an O'Douls tonight.

Drinking grain alcohol is a personal choice as far as I remember. They are all personal choices. What we're being asked here is: is it a good personal choice?

Dee74

The OP has not posted for a couple of months - I wish Kher and her family well.

The various viewpoints have been well expounded.
Thread closed.

D